NGC 7010 is a massive elliptical galaxy located about 370 million

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s from Earth in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Aquarius. NGC 7010 was discovered by astronomer

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...

on August 6, 1823, and was later listed by French astronomer Guillaume Bigourdan as IC 5082. It is host to a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass of 4.7 × 10⁸ M_☉.

Physical characteristics

NGC 7010 has broad, plateau shaped shells of stars surrounding it which are quite low in surface brightness. These shells are unusually red or redder than the rest of NGC 7010. It is thought that mergers with other galaxies along with phase wrapping causes the lower mass stars in NGC 7010 to be separated from higher mass blue stars in the shells leaving only the higher mass stars in the shells. As these stars evolve and move into the Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stage, these shells would become very red in color, especially if further star formation is suppressed in the galaxy. It's theorized that the shells formed from the accretion of another galaxy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 7010 Astronomical objects discovered in 1823 Aquarius (constellation) IC objects 7010 -2-53-24 Elliptical galaxies Shell galaxies 66039

Physical characteristics

See also

References

External links